Presently “3D” landscapes or environments developed for use in video games, technical or educational simulations can be visually stimulating and entertaining but in a large number of cases have not yet achieved fully life-like, photorealistic representations of the real world. Therefore, for most users and in most uses of these types of applications, while an “immersive” impression is the desired effect, this immersive effect is not achieved because the visual representations of the real world environments are not convincing enough.
One solution may be to use real world video as the backgrounds to these games or technical simulations but in cases where the games or simulations require “players” or other moving objects to appear on the screen and for these to move independently of the video there is a need for a system that allows both external, independent video game-like control of these “players” or objects and the ability to overlay these objects onto the video and to make them appear to be moving correctly within the same environment as is depicted in the video.
Further, the time/cost of production for a 3D representation of a real world environment is relatively high compared to making a video of the same environment. Video game development is a relatively expensive undertaking. Many current games with high production value that are intended for wide market acceptance may have development budgets in the tens and even hundreds of millions of dollars and time frames of 1-4 years to completion. A substantial portion of these development resources are allocated to designing and building the 3D environments that are the backgrounds to the games or simulations.
Alternatively, recording video of a real world location is in most cases a relatively less expensive and faster development process. One solution may be to use recorded video as the background for games and simulations where there is a limited requirement for the degree to which the user can control the viewing angles of the background environment. For example, in commonly called “rail” games or simulations, there is normally no requirements for the user to turn around (panning) and looking up and down (tilt) at the background environment. In these situations using a simple video recording or sets of video recordings with movement in only one direction could be an acceptable method of portraying the background environment.
In many video games and in some cases technical simulations require representations of game characters and other actors to be viewed onscreen. In the film and television industry, these characters and special effects are added or overlaid to the video in what is called the “post production” or VFX process but the result is a new and non-interactive visual representation in which these additions are permanent and can only be viewed in the same way each time the video is played. However, this process cannot be used in the video games or simulations where the requirement is that the characters or special effects are controlled by the user and act differently each time the game or simulation is played.
Accordingly, there is a need for means that can provide the background environment through a real world video and further provide an ability to include actors or characters and special effects which act independently of the movement of the video.
Existing software applications in the fitness and health sectors have been limited in the way they leverage new technologies such as the internet, 3D video games and relatively modern methods of distributing entertainment content. Most entertainment sources available during fitness activities, both indoor and outdoor, are limited to listening to music and watching broadcast TV or video. In a few cases there have been attempts at incorporating video game elements and internet information, but to date these attempts have not been executed in a way to garner mass market acceptance.
Accordingly, there is a need to effectively incorporate entertainment sources such as video games and internet information in a fashion that enhances the fitness activity, motivates users to exercise more and more effectively, and indeed makes the fitness activity more fun.
Further, technologies such as Social Networking, video games, live online multiplayer gaming, and performance data analysis and sharing have proven to be very popular with the general public. Accordingly, there is a need for means by which these technologies are adapted to suit certain fitness activities, in particular exercise on indoor cardio equipment such as the treadmill, elliptical, cycle, rower among others.